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March 14, 2011, will go down in history as
the infamous day when the House of Saud launched -
with full United States backing - a vicious
counter-revolution designed to smash the Gulf
chapter of the great 2011 Arab revolt. (See
Exposed: The
US/Saudi Libya deal Asia Times Online, April
2, 2011).
This is the day Saudi troops -
with a token few from the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) - invaded Bahrain, theoretically at the
request of the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty, to
"help" in the
crackdown on nationwide
pro-democracy protests.
The word in Riyadh
is that Saudi King Abdullah anyway is not running
the (nasty) House of Saud show these days. That's
essentially a Prince Nayef operation now. The
sinister Nayef, 77, Abdullah's half-brother, is
Saudi Arabia's second deputy prime minister -
apart from having being minister of interior for
no less than 36 years. The first deputy prime
minister - and anointed successor to the throne -
is Crown Prince Sultan, an octogenarian who has
been defense minister for 48 years.
If
Sultan were to die and Abdullah immediately follow
him - a clear possibility - Nayef the
inquisitor-in-chief, with a stellar curriculum
vitae of throwing any dissenters to rot in
jail, censoring the press and regarding the rights
of women and the Shi'ite minority as non-existent,
would be the next Saudi king. That only goes to
show that the House of Saud counter-revolution has
not even started.
Break their skulls,
no one is watching Meanwhile, in Bahrain,
state news agency BNA has announced, "The state of
national safety is lifted across the kingdom of
Bahrain from June 1, 2011." That's a decree by
King Hamad al-Khalifa, who proves to be, in spite
of himself, an admirer of English author George
Orwell, as he characterizes a state of emergency
as "a state of national safety".
"National
safety" in this case includes the state razing to
the ground - with full Saudi input - over 20
Shi'ite mosques; the demolition of houses; the
demolition of the Pearl roundabout - the symbol of
the mass protests; and beating and jailing
hundreds of protesters. The House of Saud's Nayef
best pal in Manama has got to be Bahrain's Prime
Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman al-Khalifa, 75,
who has held the cozy job for no less than 40
years - a world record.
In practice,
what's going on in Bahrain is a monarchy trying to
get rid of its people. The tactics are straight
out of the collective punishment playbook - as
applied by the Americans in Fallujah in 2004 and
the Israelis in Gaza for the past decades. The
opposition to the al-Khalifas happens to be the
absolute majority of Bahrain's population, and is
not exclusively Shi'ite, as the government insists
on spinning.
No less than 24 Bahraini
doctors and 23 nurses will have to face a military
tribunal - accused of plotting to bring down the
regime by force. What they actually did was to
care for protesters heavily beaten by police and
the army. According to Physicians for Human
Rights, these doctors and nurses are so subversive
because they have proof of how the police and army
behaved like beasts.
Western corporate
media's thundering silence just goes to show how
Washington and European capitals are complicit of
the House of Saud/al-Khalifa dirty work. One can
imagine the furor if this was happening in Syria;
a United Nations regime change-enabling resolution
would come quicker than a Nespresso.
Human
Rights Watch (HRW) at least has had the decency to
issue a report (see here ).
Its deputy Middle East director Joe Stork too
diplomatically has stressed the obvious; "the aims
of this vicious full-scale crackdown seem to be to
intimidate everyone into silence".
Bring on the tear gas On
Sunday, May 1, the day of the Osama bin Laden hit,
Matar Ebrahim Ali Matar - one of the 18 members of
the al-Wefaq party who had resigned from
parliament in protest - was kidnapped by masked
men after he was called for a fake meeting; a
government spokesperson later said he "has been
called in for investigation". The same thing
happened the same day to another Wefaq former
parliamentarian, Jawad Fairuz, who had his house
surrounded by 30 masked men.
Twenty-one
other opposition members were also put on trial by
special courts (military prosecutors; one military
and two civilian judges), including Shi'ite
dissident Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the
opposition group Haq who has called for the
overthrow of the monarchy; and Ebrahim Shareef,
the Sunni leader of the secular Waad group that
called for a constitutional monarchy.
The
accusation; an "attempt to overthrow the
government by force and in liaison with a
terrorist organization working for a foreign
country" - that is, Iran. Seven others are being
tried in absentia. Rights activists stress they
could be all facing the death penalty.
Then there's the new House of
Saud/al-Khalifa sport of "smash the mosque". At
least 27 mosques and scores of religious buildings
have been destroyed - including the 400-year-old
Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque. Minister of Justice
and Islamic Affairs Sheikh Khalid bin Ali bin
Abdulla al-Khalifa, has claimed, "These are not
mosques. These are illegal buildings."
That's the al-Khalifa icing on the cake
after they virtually destroyed the Bahraini health
care system (run essentially by Shi'ites); fired
over a thousand Shi'ite civil servants and
canceled their pensions; jailed scores of students
and teachers who took part in the protests; beat
and arrested journalists; and closed down the only
opposition newspaper.
As part of the
US/Saudi deal, Bahrain - and by extension the
House of Saud - can get away with anything; all
praise for the al-Khalifas for hosting the US
Navy's Fifth Fleet. No UN sanctions or even a slap
on the wrist; no no-fly or no-drive zone approved
by a UN resolution; no arming of the "rebels"; no
North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing; no
burning desire for regime change as in Libya; no
Tomahawk diplomacy; and of course no target
assassinations.
For the moment at least,
sizable Anglo-American investments in Bahrain are
"protected"; as for the British merchants of death
who sell hand grenades, demolition charges, smoke
canisters and thunder flashes to the al-Khalifa
repression machine, business can only prosper.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
